Welcome - About Live and Loud!

Live and Loud! began as a fortnightly internet radio show taking old unreleased live concert recordings I could find and working to repair and improve them - fixing tape hiss, noise, tape drop out, clicks, speed variations, defects - before improving the sound quality by EQing the sound to bring out the instruments as clearly as possible. These are now made directly available to download for free to reach as many fans of the music as possible.

Depending on the quality of the original recording, these can often be made to sound almost like commercial recordings - but of course I can't guarantee that for every show. What I can guarantee is it will sound far better than the original files available which have been floating around the internet and on bootleg recordings for many years. Almost all are either "soundboard" recordings taken directly from the mixing desk used at the gig on the night - or old FM radio recordings. A few gigs, if they are of special historical importance, make an appearance even if they were recorded from the audience.

Do your ears a favour and listen on headphones or good speakers to get most benefit - laptop speakers will always sound pretty poor by comparison.

All shows still available are listed, including a link to download the remastered show for free. If you want the shows in lossless format, or as separate tagged files, head over to the Rewards for Donations page and see how you can get a lot for very little!

And finally... These are great fun to listen to but DO NOT replace original releases - support these artists and buy their music. There is nothing you can go and buy in a regular record store here. If a gig is made available as a regular release, then it will be removed (as a couple have been already).

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Monday, 30 January 2017

Live and Loud! Radio is an occasional series of free downloads, starting January 2017. Radio sessions that never got an official release, sympathetically repaired and remastered and then released onto the internet.

No theme tune, no intro from me - just the original session, repaired and remastered and available in a downloadable zip file.

Live and Loud! Radio Prog 2: Kraftwerk: HR1 Frankfurt Radio Concert, 25 January 1974

Tracklisting
Introduction
Klingklang
Ruckzuck
Radio Announcer
Atem

Tongebirge
Tanzmusik
Radio Announcer
Kohoutek/Kometenmelodie I & II

This is a concert specifically created for radio - Kraftwerk were top of a bill featuring 3 acts - more information is available in the download.

The zip file contains the show and a text file with more information about the original concert and a translation of the German radio announcer. You can get it by clicking here.

The original recording has a basic mix with each instrument in a particular place in the stereo image - electronic percussion was bizarrely over on the extreme left, so I've reshaped the stereo image and moved the percussion slightly just to take away the unpleasant effect of having the percussion overload the left hand side too much. I then used 30 band EQ to enhance bass and upper frequencies, creating more "space" in the tracks between the instruments and bringing out detail which you can't hear on the original (to those interested, a screenshot of the EQ is in the zip too).

If you know anyone who wants a copy of these tracks, I'd rather you redirect anyone to this page for a copy but if you do redistribute please use the original zip with the tracks and info file! Thank you. :)

Friday, 27 January 2017

A second gig from Crowded House for Live and Loud! - and this one is from much earlier in their careers. After forming in 1985 when Split Enz came to an end, they eventually moved to the USA to record their first album - Crowded House - which was released in June 1986. Don’t Dream Its Over became a huge hit later that year and broke the band around the world.

They went back to the USA at the start of February 1987 and started 4 solid months of touring the country. This show is from that tour and was the first of 2 nights at The Bottom Line; this show originally broadcast on FM radio there.

The recording was in fairly good condition, just a bit flat sounding. Someone had faded out the end of every track on this recording before I got it, so there's not QUITE so much banter from the band in between songs as on the other show I did last year (you can find the other 2 Crowded House shows here) but its still a great show. I repaired some of those fades where they were quite severe and with some EQ to separate out and enhance the instruments and remove some of the sibilance from Neil's vocals, the show has polished up pretty well and sounds very clear.

The show is now available for free download HERE as 1 MP3 file. Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
This Is Massive
When You Come
Mean To Me
World Where You Live
That's What I Call Love
One Step Ahead
Recurring Dream
Something So Strong
Love You 'til The Day I Die
Hole In The River
Don't Dream It's Over
Now We're Getting Somewhere
Throw Your Arms Around Me
Tombstone (with Love in the Fowl House ( Pretty Little Hen) / Anarchy In The UK)
Better Be Home Soon
Sister Madly
Not Fade Away

Tuesday, 17 January 2017

This time its Duran Duran from their very first trip into Europe, after the release of their debut album. The recording is unfortunately quite short, from a French FM broadcast, and in common with several other French FM broadcasts I have, the presenters do like to talk in between songs quite a bit! I guess to stop home taping - thankfully though, someone saved this for posterity. The story is that with it being recorded for broadcast, apparently EMI paid for Duran fans from Birmingham to be ferried over to Paris for this gig, to ensure there was a crowd!

The recording was at the wrong speed (Fame was scooting along at warp speed...) so I've slowed it down a bit. After some hiss reduction and EQ to even out the sound and put some space between the instruments, it was done.

There will no doubt be a 3rd Duran Duran show up on the site in a few months. In the meantime, the show is now available to download exclusively for free here as 1 MP3 file. Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Friday, 13 January 2017

In 1990, Jean Michel Jarre released his 10th studio album, Waiting For Cousteau, dedicated to marine conservationist Jacques Cousteau, on Cousteau’s 80th birthday on 11 June. A month later he promoted the album with a huge live event in Paris, on Bastille Day. Backed by many of his usual collaborators on synthesisers and drums, he was joined by a steel band, a choir and enormous marionettes alongside the usual extravagant light show. The show was watched by an estimated 2.5 million people live in the city, setting a new record.

The original copy of the FM broadcast I had given to me (thank you, you know who you are!) was quite thin and compressed but with some patient EQ and fixing a couple of defects, now sounds far better, if not entirely compression free.

In the 1990s a VHS video was issued of this show but that had tracks missing; this recording does have all tracks present. Incidentally, in common with other French broadcast recordings I have, they do like to talk in between tracks! So you will hear the odd spoken link in between tracks, as well as at the end of the recording before M. Jarre says his final farewell.

The show is now available to download exclusively for free here as 1 MP3 file. Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Sunday, 8 January 2017

This is a remaster of a recording by someone from the audience on the night. As such it might not be as clear as most of the gigs on the archive. However, recordings of this tour are few and far between and all are poor quality, and some songs were never played live again, so I've done what I can to make this one listenable.

I could write a book on all the work involved in fixing this one. Of 3 sources, I started work on one only to find that 1 track in particular had lots of noises I couldn't remove on it, so I started from scratch on the next best source. Hours of editing, volume balancing, selectively EQing different parts to reduce the effect of distortion, reducing large amounts of tape hiss without killing the recording altogether, as well as the usual EQ to bring out the instruments and voice...well, I'm glad to see this one done, put it that way! I hope you think its worth it.

The show is now available to download exclusively for free here as 1 MP3 file. Or, if you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

Setlist
This is My House
I, Assassin
Remind Me to Smile
Films
Crash
Music for Chameleons
She's Got Claws
Every Day I Die
Down in the Park
White Boys and Heroes
Cars
War Songs
We Take Mystery (To Bed)
This Wreckage
We Are Glass
Tracks

Wednesday, 4 January 2017

Live and Loud! Radio is an occasional series of free downloads, starting January 2017. Radio sessions that never got an official release, sympathetically repaired and remastered and then released onto the internet.

No theme tune, no intro from me - just the original session, repaired and remastered and available in a downloadable zip file containing each separate track.

Live and Loud! Radio Prog 1: Nash The Slash: "Goldrush" on CBC-FM, August 1979

The session is available as a zip file, containing each track. You can get it by clicking here.

Original files had noise reduction applied via Izotope RX5 and then 30 band EQ to remove mid range muddiness and enhance bass and upper frequencies, creating more "space" in the tracks between the instruments. I didn't take away every last bit of hiss - frankly that can also remove a lot of the recording and end up sounding awful. Ultimately this is about preserving the music. But believe me, there was a lot more hiss on the original source files.

Some clicks and tape dropouts have also been repaired - you won't hear where. :) The ones you can hear, I couldn't fix without access to a better copy (which may not exist, who knows?).

If you know anyone who wants a copy of these tracks, I'd rather you redirect anyone to this page for a copy but if you do redistribute please use the original zip with the tracks and info file! Thank you. :)

Donations

All shows are free to download of course! However, if you do wish to donate towards the site's running costs (even £1) you can get properly tagged and separated FLACs and MP3s for every show in return! Check out the "Rewards for Donations" tab for details. You can donate at this link. Thank you.